Time Budget And Activity Rhythm Of Breeding Gadwall (Anas Strepera) During Day And Behaviour Differences Between Genders

From April to June in 2009 and April to June in 2010, time budget of breeding Gadwall (Anas Strepera) during day was investigated in the Daqing Longfeng wetland by using instantaneous scanning sampling methods.The result indicate that Gadwall spent 30.30% and 32.42% of their active time feeding and resting, swimming, preening and territorial behaviour only accounted 9.72%,18.07% and 5.62% of activity duration. The feeding bahaviour and resting bahaviour are the major bahaviours of activity duration. Their behaviours had stronger disciplines in whole observation period. Two peaks of feeding occourred in the moring and dusk. Resting bahaviours and preening behaviours were negative correlated of feeding bahaviour. The total duration of territorial behaviour and other behaviours were less than feeding behaviour because of their randomness.Compared with the time budget of winter Gadwall, wo found that The ducks spent less time to feeding, but more time to resting. The quality of food in breeding season is better than winter season, and the temperature variation in the day were the major cause.There is no difference between famale and male in the time budget and feeding behaviours. Because the Gadwall is the herbivores. And the female of Gadwall use some stored protein to meet the costs of egg production.We found that Gadwall have territorial behaviours. We astimate the area of territory is about 50m2, which less than 28ha repoted in foreign reports. The resons may be due to the quality and availability of foods is better.